Cummins engines to back up Schneck Medical Center operations
Cummins – Seymour Engine Plant workers recently built two 30-liter diesel-powered engines on which more than their livelihoods might depend. The engines could help save their lives someday.
The QST30 engines soon will be place in power generation sets that will power the emergency electrical needs at Schneck Medical Center just a couple of miles away in Seymour, IN.
First, though, those two engines will be shipped to Fridley, MN, where another division of Cummins Inc. will attach then to power generation sets. They’ll then make their way back to the Seymour hospital. They’ll replace two smaller power generators, also equipped with Cummins diesel engines.
The QST30 engines are larger however, and will provide Schneck with enough energy to power all of the hospital’s medical needs and keep things cool if a power outage occurs during the summer. That’s true even if one fails or needs to be taken down for maintenance.
“Right now, the generators can’t supply all of our needs and run the air conditioning units. These new sets can,” Jason Fee said. He is the hospital’s director of facilities. The old generators are less efficient, too, and replacement parts are becoming more difficult to find, Fee said.
Fee, Schneck Chief Executive Officer Gary Meyer and other hospital employees recently toured Seymour Engine Plant and had an opportunity to see one of its two engines being built on the assembly line. A second was being prepared for testing.
“They’re critical for us and will serve our community – the community of the people making these engines – well,” Meyer said following the tour.
“Our workers will know exactly what they’ve built, where it is and what they’re being used for,” Seymour Engine Plant Managing Engineer Director Darren Kimmel said. Workers rarely have any idea what their work powers let alone have an opportunity to see the engines in service.
Meyer said the workers’ labor and end products are critical to the hospital functioning in the case of an emergency. He suggested that plant workers be invited to see the power generation sets and engines in action once they’re installed at the hospital.
The units will provide much more than lighting. “They are essential for patient and employee safety,” Fee said. “It’s not just lights, although the hospital would get very dark inside without electricity. But there are also procedures that are performed every day in the hospital. We can’t lose power during those procedures.”
Fee said it’s rare for the hospital to lose power, in part because it has two electrical feeds from Duke Energy. “If someone hits a utility pole in the neighborhood that knocks out power, the second feed automatically kicks in,” he said. “It’s very rare that the generators have to run because we don’t have electricity, but we can’t run that risk.”
Installation will see construction of a metal enclosure in the area of the cancer center to house the generator sets, Fee said. Underground lines will carry electricity from the generators to the main hospital building.
The generators will be tested monthly, and also occasionally fire up when Duke asks for a power share, Fee said. That helps test the generators, keeps stored diesel fuel from going stale and helps keep their power costs down for everyone by sharing electricity with Duke during peak demand periods, he added.
For more on this story, see The Tribune 8.23.13